The taming of the cat happened about 10.000 years after that of the dog and 1.500 years after the horse's.

One principle of domestication is the desire of the individual to integrate a social ierarchy, which didn't quite fit the cat's individuality profile. For millenia, the cat has enjoyed the commensality of the human contact while keeping its distance.

In 2017 there were 100 million cats in the US homes, about one to every three people, whereas in Romania you can estimate one to every five people, but the numbers are not official, as many cats don't open their tiny doors to census teams.

In Antiquity the cat is less well known, an animal humans don't interact with closely or enough. It has not immersed itself in the social mechanism as a tender companion, it's just a wonderful pest extermination machine.

From another angle, it is argued that the cat did not meet the classical values, pietas and fides. A free animal, highly independent, could not mix with the Roman elite that preffered the stoic dog to the epicurean cat.

 It's interesting that there are reasons not to love a cat, but having different philosophical views with it had not crossed my mind so far.

After a long Antiquity in which the cat preserves its independence, it is actually discovered in the early Middle Ages and compromised for centuries to come by mistrust originated in a papal bull.

Cats, especially the black ones, are demonized by the official christian doctrine starting with the papal bull given by Pope Gregory IXth, after that being associated with heresy and demons.

Only after the barbaric witch hunt associated with the Tudors and Stuarts, we can say that the cat is finally established as a pet, from 1700s onward.

In the 7th century there is a christian-islamic sincronicity in cat loving.

There are more legends including christian hermits that pet cats and are cautioned by God to redirect their attention entirely to devotion. The hermit story is included in the 13th century in the medieval bestseller Legenda Aurea.

An islamic hadith tells the story of Mohammad who, instead of waking up the cat sleeping on its sleeve, preffers to cut it and then go to prayer.

In Byzantium in the 11th century, Empress Zoe, the wife of Constantine Monomachos, used to feed its cat Mechlempe in golden plates.

The medieval discovery of the cat shows of a shift in mentality rather than just a intensified presence of the predator. 

In Antiquity the feline is held for rodents, not for caresses. The first to use tenderness and companionship associated with cats are medieval monks.

Archeological proof of this shift in mentality - the discovery of the cat as a source for tenderness, not just for its antimouse superpowers - are now lacking, but there are some medieval texts that bring hope in this direction.